The Virgin of the Sun eBook

“Lord, after this I sought out certain of my
friends who had loved me in my youth and my mother
also while she lived, revealing myself to them.
We made plans together, but before aught could be done
in earnest, it was needful that I should see my father
Upanqui. While I was waiting till he had recovered
from the stroke that fell upon him, some spy betrayed
me to Urco, who searched for me to kill me and well-nigh
found me. The end of it was that I was forced
to fly, though before I did so many swore themselves
to my cause who would escape from the tyranny of Urco.
Moreover, it was agreed that if I returned with soldiers
at my back, they and their followers would come out
to join me to the number of thousands, and help me
to take my own again so that I may be Inca after Upanqui
my father. Therefore I have come back here to
talk with you and Huaracha.

“Such is my tale.”

CHAPTER VIII

THE FIELD OF BLOOD

When on the morrow Huaracha, King of the Chancas,
heard all this story and that Urco had given poison
to his daughter Quilla, who, if she still lived at
all, did so, it was said, as a blind woman, a kind
of madness took hold of him.

“Now let war come; I will not rest or stay,”
he cried, “till I see this hound, Urco, dead,
and hang up his skin stuffed with straw as an offering
to his own god, the Sun.”

“Yet it was you, King Huaracha, who sent the
lady Quilla to this Urco for your own purposes,”
said Kari in his quiet fashion.

“Who and what are you that reprove me?”
asked Huaracha turning on him. “I only
know you as the servant or slave of the White-Lord-from-the-Sea,
though it is true I have heard stories concerning you,”
he added.

“I am Kari, the first-born lawful son of Upanqui
and by right heir to the Inca throne, no less, O Huaracha.
Urco my brother robbed me of my wife, as through the
folly of my father, upon whose heart Urco’s mother
worked, he had already robbed me of my inheritance.
Then, to make sure, he strove to poison me as he has
poisoned your daughter, with a poison that would make
me mad and incapable of rule, yet leave me living—­because
he feared lest the curse of the Sun should fall upon
him if he murdered me. I recovered from that bane
and wandered to a far land. Now I have returned
to take my own, if I am able. All that I say I
can prove to you.”

For a while Huaracha stared at him astonished, then
said:

“And if you prove it, what do you ask of me,
O Kari?”

“The help of your armies to enable me to overthrow
Urco, who is very strong, being the Commander of the
Quichua hosts.”

“And if your tale be true and Urco is overthrown,
what do you promise me in return?”

“The independence of the Chanca people, who
otherwise must soon be destroyed, and certain other
added territories which you covet, while I am Inca.”

“And with this my daughter, if she still lives?”
asked Huaracha looking at him.